FORMER NIXON ESTATE FOR SALE
La Casa Pacifica, an enclave in San Clemente, served as the president’s Western White House
La Casa Pacifica, above in 1975, the San Clemente estate that President Nixon used as his Western White House, has been listed at $75 million.
A San Clemente estate once owned by Richard Nixon and used as a Western White House during his presidency has been put up for sale at $75 million.
Former Allergan Inc. Chief Executive Gavin S. Herbert, who acquired the property and surrounding acreage from Nixon in the 1980s, is selling the home after more than three decades of ownership.
Dubbed La Casa Pacifica by the former president, the sprawling estate occupies the rearmost location within a private, guard-gated enclave, an isolated bluff that overlooks the ocean.
Within the 5.45-acre grounds is a hacienda-style main residence, a two-bedroom guesthouse, multiple staff residences and offices, a greenhouse, a pool, a tennis court, formal gardens and large expanses of grass.
The main house, built in the 1920s, spans about 9,000 square feet with tile and hardwood flooring, arched doorways and detailed groin-vaulted ceilings. Among the features are an ocean-view office used by Nixon, an entertainer’s pavilion and a master suite with an expanded bathroom and closet area. Formal living spaces open to a center courtyard with a tiled fountain.
Acquired for Nixon’s use in 1969, the estate has played host to a world leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu and former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spent his 61st birthday at the Western White House. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s famous trip to the grounds in summer 1973 came as the Watergate scandal began to unfold.
Celebrity visitors included Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Red Skelton, Cesar Romero and the Rev. Billy Graham.
Nixon was not the first president to set foot on the property, however. That honor goes to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who once played poker at the home as a guest of the original owner, Hamilton Cotton, a financier and treasurer of the California Democratic Party.